Peter Harris
Founder, CEO
The Harris Agency
Q: In an age when anyone, anywhere, at any time can disseminate information, how can a modern-day public affairs or public relations firm break through the noise and deliver the message of its clients to the masses?
Peter Harris (The Harris Agency): It’s not just about delivering the message of your clients. It’s about assuring your clients’ message is relevant to and advances the conversation. PR practitioners who are successful find the sweet spot between the message their clients want to deliver and the news the readers/viewers/listeners care about. It’s also critical to take a more blended approach across multiple channels — editorial, social media, speaking engagements, employee communications, customer communications, paid content, advertising, online and more — so audiences hear and see those messages again and again.
Q: What are you doing now that you may not have been doing one, three, five years ago?
Peter Harris (The Harris Agency): We are enmeshed in every facet of the business in ways we’ve never been before. CEOs who did not understand the value of having a communications professional at the table before the pandemic learned the hard way that our counsel is critical. As a result, we are working in a more integrated way across the enterprise, with C-suite, HR, IR, marketing, government relations, sales, strategy, etc.
Q: What is your best sales pitch to a potential client who currently is not using a PR/PA firm?
Peter Harris (The Harris Agency): We ask a very simple and straightforward question: ‘How important is your company’s reputation?’
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